3172 N. Motherlode Circle, Wasilla AK. 99654

Yes, that’s it, our soon to be new address!


Front of Home


Back of Home

We have a lot more photos of the place that the landlord took for us, but there are people still in the house and it’s a bit messy. I might post some more another time.
Either way…We Have A House!

Rentals

Man it’s tough, tough finding a house and not a condo or duplex that will allow our 3 dogs. I though we had a place, talked with the landlord many times and it sounded like we were in. Then, I hadn’t heard from her for a couple days so I called to see what was up. She then told me that she had about 4 others that have applied for that rental. In all the talking I had done with her prier, it sounded like we had the place. Well, during the call she said she would be making her decision the next day, that was last Monday and no call from her. I guess we didn’t get the house, would have been nice if she would have called or emailed to let me know of her decision.

Anyway, I’ve been in contact with someone else on a house and he said that the house is empty now with no one waiting to move in, sounds good. He’s a tough one to get in contact with though. The first time I call him he was in FL and said he would be back in AK over the weekend then off to Africa. I’m now just waiting for him to get back with me on this rental.

In the mean time, I keep looking.

There is no turning back now from our move. I have put in my resignation and posted my job to our employment page on the LTBB Website.

The Date is Set

The date of our move and arrival are finally set!
We’ll be boarding the Alaska Marine Highway September 12 and arriving in Whittier AK September 18.
The ferry trip is in 2 legs.

Leg 1:
Depart Bellingham 6:00 pm September 12th on Columbia
Arrive September 14th in Ketchikanat 9:15 am
Depart Ketchikan at 1:15 pm
Arrive in Wrangell at 6:45 pm
Depart Wrangell at 7:30 pm
Arrive in Petersburg 10:45 pm
Depart Petersburg 11:30 pm
Arrive in Juneau 7:15 am September 15th

Leg 2:
Depart Juneau September 16th at 1:30 pm on Kennicott
Arrive in Yakutat September 17th 6:30 am
Depart Yakutat 8:00 am
Arrive in Whittier September 18th 6:00 am

We desided to go the ferry route mainly to avoid Canada and the hasle it has become to cross the border. Besides, traviling the Inside Passsage in September is going to be wonderful.

We’ll be leaving Harbor Springs on August 31st and driving US 2 to Seattle.

Now that we have a set date, we have to get our butts in gear and get ready. Going to be a very busy 95 days from now until then.

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Exploratory trip complete

What a trip! We left Michigan Thursday morning, arriving in Anchorage at about 2:15pm and back home Monday at about 10:30am.

Anyway, the trip was very successful, though short. We stayed in Girdwood, rainy Girdwood. First full day we drove north up to Palmer over to Wasilla then up into Hatcher Pass, as far as we could anyway. While in Wasilla, we stop at Lowe?s so my wife could talk with the HR department. She was offered a job on the spot! Unfortunately, they wanted her to start in 2 weeks. We just can?t be back in AK that fast. But it does sound promising, they ask Jan (my wife) to get her transfer papers filled out and sent. Later we drove back to Anchorage and explored a bit and had dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse, Yummy. Second day, Saturday, we drove south into the town of Kenai then over to Seward.

The main reason for coming up was to check with the HR department at Lowe?s and prices of things. I have to say that the cost of goods, groceries, furniture, gas, all that kind of stuff, is about the same as here in northern MI. In fact, some cost less. There is no doubt at all now about our move.

A couple of things I didn?t expect. One was the intensity of the sun, how hot it felt on your skin. The other was how small Anchorage ?felt?, more of a town feeling then a city.

Below is one of the many photos I took.

Taking Another Step

Last Friday we headed out to do some shopping and thought we’d stop by and take another look at cargo trailers. Expecting them to be closed after 5pm, but sure enough, someone came out to greet us. After looking inside a couple trailers we desided that a 20×8 footer would be best for us. We bought one! Well, we placed a down payment on one anyway. Today, we go to pick the trailer up, YAY. We still need to find a good spot to park it so that we have good access to be able to load things up. I’ll have a picture later.

1 week from tomorrow we’ll be in Alaska! 🙂 Even if it is just for a short time.

Photos

As you can see above I have a new link to Photos. This will be, I hope, the area that I’ll post most on my pictures from our travels. At this time, it is only in testing until we take our short vacation.

Tax Day & 15 Days

Tax day has come and gone. That’s one thing we’ll have less of once we move, taxes. Alaska doesn’t have state income taxes and most areas don’t have sales taxes either. The areas that do are quite small, the most I’ve seen is 3.5%, compared to the damn 6% Michigan puts on.

15 days until our quickie vacation.

This is Mendenhall Glacier with Fire Weed in the fore ground